1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for managing power modes of a computing system.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
As computing system become more complex and the number of components of the systems increase, the power requirements for each computing system also increases. In fact, power requirements for some components are so high today that user safety has become a concern. When, for example, a user accesses the interior computing components of a computing system, while the computing system is powered, power supply lines may carry a large amount of current. So large so, that a user may be harmed if physical contact occurs. To that end, Underwriters Laboratories (‘UL’) has set a standard for safety in which power supply lines accessible by non-electricians may provide no more than 240 VA. For users that operate may computing systems at one time—in a data center, for example—the cost, in money and time, of hiring a licensed electrician is often too great. As such, most users require 240 VA standards to be employed in each computing system. To that end, many computing systems are configured with multiple 240 VA channels. As systems have become more powerful, the number of these channels have grown exponentially. As the number of these channel increases, the cost and complexity of implementing the system increases and inefficiency increases due to available power be limited.